Page 102 of Dream On, Liar

“Love you. Even though you’re a snitch.”

Dev laughed. “Love you too.”

The sound of thunder clapping broke that memory, and I was back to the real world. Her letter tight in my hold as I closed my eyes once again.

But even with closed eyes, it’s not the depths of silent darkness I was so desperate for. It’d been her voice I heard, and the contents of the letter that read back to me.

A letter from my mother, beyond the grave. The one that she’d written sometime between the call we’d shared that night, and the last one after that.

My mother had broken her promise. She never did come to visit us, or take me to the cabin. It was also then I’d finally made her the villain in my mind like my father had wanted. It hadn’t been until last year when I’d finally learnt that she’d gotten sick enough that was bared from flying. But I was sure that as a kid, I wouldn’t have believed her. Because making her the bad person in the story had always been easier.

Turning on my side, I hear the end of her letter again, as they sing me to sleep.

If you’re reading this before your twenty-fifth birthday, that means my vice has finally taken my life from me. I’ve left all you with things, but yours is a little special. I know I broke your heart when I didn’t keep my promise to take you to the cabin. Which is why, it’s now completely yours. Devyant can help you keep take care of it until you’re old enough to do so. But, he knows that, the cabin is just yours. And everything that’s in it.

I know it may never be enough.

But I hope that you get to relieve the memories with me when you finally find the pieces I’ve kept hidden there.

I love you so much. I’m sorry for everything.

- Ma x

18

Maeve

MY HEAD FELT LIKE someone had wedged a drum behind my eyes and was testing how loudly it could be played.

The flight had been less than an hour.

It had still been interminable.

I’d spent most of it beside Raina, trying very hard not to be the person who complained about a hangover after willingly drinking enough to earn one.

I’d failed spectacularly.

Every time the plane dipped, my stomach lurched.

Every time someone laughed too loudly, my temples throbbed.

And every time my mind drifted back to the conversation with Rihaan at the pub, the headache somehow managed to find another gear.

Unlike him, I had a tendency to remember quite literally everything about the night. Tequila or not.

And worse, I'd spent the rest of the flight wondering what he’d meant when he’d said why he’d forgotten, the broken look he had when he talked about how something had happened with his father, or the stuff that had gone down with his family and why he’d looked at me like that when I’d answered him about leaving him.

It had taken everything in me not to ask Raina to expand on it. I already felt like I had crossed an invisible line when I’d gotten back to my hotel room last night and scoured the intranet. The words “Lancashire vs Surrey 2023”, along with “Rihaan and Vikram Patel” and “Singhania Diamonds Scandal 2023” had taken a large chunk of that history. And yet, the only thing I’d been able to find was what Rihaan had told me: him lashing out on the field. There had been a glimpse of Vikram grabbing Rihaan just as he was pulled off the field, and made his way to the tent where the rest of the squad sat.

Raina had glanced at me twice during the flight.

The third time, I'd caught her. “Yes?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to.”

She simply smiled, her eyes flicking between me and the row next to us, landing on her older brother.